1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



119 



weather is favorable, the combs in the brood- 

 nest are reversed by putting those frames hav- 

 ing the least brood in them in the center of the 

 cluster, and those having the most at the out- 

 side, thus causing the queen to fill these center 

 combs with eggs as fully as were those which 

 were in the center before, or more so, while the 

 brood in those now on the outside is not allow- 

 ed to decrease at all. In this way a great gain 

 is made, as I have proven by leaving rows of 

 hives in the apiary untouched, and by treating 

 others as here given. Understand, I am talk- 

 ing of the frames which have brood in them, or 

 what is termed the ''hrood-nest,'' and not the 

 brood -chamber. Only the frames having brood 

 in them are reversed; the rest are left untouch- 

 ed. In about two weeks the brood-nest is re- 

 versed again, at which time all but the very 

 weakest colonies will have brood in all. or all 

 but one or two combs, after which there is no 

 gain made in handling the frames, unless you 

 have some special object in view, such as tak- 

 ing away the queen, changing brood from a 

 stronger to a weaker colony, or something of 

 that sort. In two or three days after the last 

 reversing was done, the colonies are ready for 

 the sections, if there is any honey coming !n. 

 If not. it is better to wait till the hive becomes 

 a little more populous; yet if we wait too long 

 the colony is apt to contract the swarming fe- 

 ver before they go to work in the sections, in 

 which case our prospect of a large yield of hon- 

 ey is lessened. As a rule, the fewer swarms 

 that issue, the greater the yield of honey; yet 

 where bees get the swarming fever, as they 

 often will in spite of all our precautions, better 

 results ivill then be obtained to let them have 

 their own way, using the Heddon plan of pre- 

 venting after-swarms, or some other equally 

 good plan, than to try to keep these *' fractious *' 

 bees all in the old hive. 



NON-SWARMING BY TIERING UF FOR EXTRACT- 

 ED HONEY. 



In a late number of the Review I spoke of 

 working my out-apiary on the tiering-up plan 

 for exM'acted honey, so as to prevent swarming, 

 or reduce swarming to such an extent that it 

 would not pay to keep a man there to look after 

 swaims. A correspondent, reading the same, 

 wishes me to tell in Gleanings how it is done, 

 as he has friends who take Gleanings, but 

 not the Review. Before doing this I wish to 

 ask you. Mr. Editor, not to let Dr. Miller call 

 me had Doolittle again, as he did in a late 

 Stray Straw, because I had not told him that I 

 had an out-apiary for the last three years. I 

 have no time to hunt it up; but I am sure that 

 I have twice mentioned the fact in print, before 

 so stating in the Revieiv, for I had no desire to 

 keep the thing a seciet. But, to return: The 

 out-apiary is managed in the same way as giv- 

 en above until the time arrives for putting on 

 sections, when, instead of putting on sections, a 

 second story, filled with (ill ivorker comb, is put 

 on in place of 'Sections. If more room is needed 

 (which there generally will be where the honey 

 is all left on to the end of the season, as I 

 recommended in the Reviev^). as soon as sigrns 

 of this are recognized, put a queen-excluder on 

 top of the second story and a third story on top 

 of this. Drone comb, or any thing along the 

 line of comb, can be used in this, as the queen 

 does not have access to it. If the honey season 

 continues, and it is needed, put on the fourth, 

 fifth, or sixth story, not extracting till the 

 season is over, when all is to be extracted which 

 the bees do not need for winter. The point is, 

 to give so much room to the queen in the two 

 lower stories that the bees will not want to 

 swarm. If the excluder is placed on top of the 

 first story, the bees are kept from swarming 



but little more than when working for section 

 honey. G. M. Doolittle. 



Bordino, N. Y., Jan. 3G. 



[This plan of tiering up for extracted honey 

 is practiced by others; and. if we remember cor- 

 rectly, by the Dadants. Where there are plenty 

 of combs and upper stories or supers.it is the 

 most economical of labor, and what is of equal 

 importance the honey is the richest and finest, 

 because a large part of it has been kept over 

 the hive for a prolonged time, thus being thor- 

 oughly ripened.] 



FROM PH. J. BALDENSPERGER. 



a review of hack numbers of gi-eanings. 

 how baldensperger makes use of 



CAMELS. 



In your issue for Jan. 1, 1892, you speak of the 

 Stanley extractor. I may say that I too tried it 

 one season. In addition to iis being very expen- 

 sive, it is too large to go through ordinary doors. 

 In Palestine, as we used migratory bee-keeping 

 we used them almost all the year round, out of 

 doors ; but when crated, so as to avoid the 

 many knocks the can would have to go through 

 in loading and unloading daily on and off the 

 camels, they work nicely. 1 fixed the chains and 

 reversible parts, and extracted some 10,000 lbs. 

 in the coui'se of the year with one extractor. 

 The Arabs are not good hands at th^ crank, so 

 I dispensed with that, and they work it by the 

 simple handle. I should prefer, judging from 

 the looks on p. 51, 1892, the Cowan rapid revers- 

 ible, and I'll use one of that kind. We took 13.50 

 lbs. of orange-blossom honey in one day with a 

 Stanley extractor. One man turned the ex- 

 tractor and frames, while another man did the 

 uncapping, another carried the full and empty 

 combs to and from the apiary, and your humble 

 servant look out the comb from the hives, some- 

 times taking 2<) combs out of one hive. We never 

 spare the brood comb, and lose very few bees; 

 for if the whole frame contains uncapped brood 

 the frames are left in the hive, all others pass- 

 ing through our hands. The above amount 

 was taken from 40 hives, Apr. 9, 1892, averaging 

 nearly 34 lbs. per hive. The same hives had 

 been extracted Apr. 2. and averaged 29 lbs. 



FUNICS. 



Punic bees did not act with me as described 

 on page 1(52 by " Hallamshire Bee-keeper.'" In 

 Palestine they were less dangerous than Pales- 

 tines; but having only a few, I handled them 

 with the utmost care. At all events, they are 

 not so ready to sting as Palestines, though just 

 as irritable. The pure North Africans, for that 

 is the right name, such as I saw in their North- 

 African homes, acted differently. Perhaps their 

 general management, which is quite different 

 from mine, infiuences their disposition, for they 

 used to attack us as soon as we approached the 

 apiary which my brothers had there several 

 years. Palestines, and Syrians or Cyprians, 

 never do so. and I hope the North Africans may 

 prove the same with kind handling. The sting 

 is, in my flesh, just as painful as that of the 

 Syrians or Easterns; and this lot I handled was 

 just as cross- tempered as bees can be. I .could 

 work with Palestines, when not venturing to 

 look through more than two hives in September 

 or October, without a veil. With no honey com- 

 ing in. robbers make necessary greater precau- 

 tion; but these North Africans began stinging 

 us the very first moment we set to work; and 

 unless smoko^d continually they would simply 

 be unendurable. Now, one thing may excite 

 their anger; viz.: While in treeless Palestine 

 we have hardly any traces of propolis to stick 



